Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

9.03.2008

Today we visited a knife making workshop in Scarperia and the Lamborghini museum. The knife maker was intensely proud of what he does and his face glowed as he showed us his favorite knife. He was so proud of the design and craft of this knife that he called it his son.

Then we all piled onto the bus to make the trip to the Lamborghini museum. On a side note, the bus driver was a really friendly guy and did a great job touring us around Italy. We all chipped in at the end of the journey to give him a nice tip. I think he thoroughly enjoyed the trip as well, he went to all the sites with us and took pictures and made friends with all the Italians we met...not a bad gig.

Anyway, the Lamborghinis were beautiful. We got to go behind the scenes and tour the assembly line where every Lamborghini in the world is assembled by hand. Again, the quality of workmanship and pride of craft was evident on the faces of the workers and very inspiring to me. Also interesting to me was the way in which the company does business. They produce limited numbers and the workers only work a single shift from 8-5. Then the plant shuts down and everybody goes home. They could easily hire more workers and build around the clock, cranking out Lamborghinis much quicker and making more money, but the intense focus on building a quality product stands in direct opposition to this method of manufacturing.